To Save a Life
by mirage24
Summary: Coming back from an unusual mission, Jack is an angry loose-cannon. But with doubts as to why that's the case- even as to WHAT happened in the first place- the rest of SG-1 must find a way to make things right... even if they have no idea what went wrong.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Stargate: SG-1

**To Save a Life**

**Chapter One**

"_I'm not going to do this anymore, Daniel!"_

_The 'gate closed behind the team as they made their way down the ramp, Colonel Jack O'Neill shouting the whole way. Most of it was directed at Daniel, though some made its way by the way of side remarks to Teal'c and Major Carter. Taking note of the suddenly tense situation, General Hammond thought it best to leave the control room and greet SG-1 in the gate room._

"_Jack, please. Just—"_

_The Colonel spun on Jackson, stopping abruptly in his quick walk to the infirmary for their required after-mission examinations._

"_Just," he said, gesturing with two hands in the air, "_Shut up_." He looked like he was going to say more but the anger General Hammond saw—at least he thought it was anger—seemed to come off of Jack in waves. Instead, Jack all put threw his gun at the airmen waiting to take it and left the gate room without a single word._

_The General took a few more steps into the room, walking toward the area where a very stunned Daniel and quiet Sam and Teal'c stood, watching the spot where the Colonel just been._

"_What just happened?" he asked of the group._

"_I…um, I'm not completely sure, sir," Carter said._

_Daniel nodded his agreement._

"_Colonel O'Neill is exhibiting most unusual behavior," Teal'c commented._

"_Something must have happened with the machine," Daniel continued._

"_Machine?" the General asked and then shook his head. "Go get checked out and we'll debrief in an hour."_

"_Yes sir."_

* * *

"_What do you mean he just 'freaked out'?" General Hammond asked of the almost fully assembled SG-1. _

_Colonel O'Neill had been held back by Dr. Janet Frasier in the infirmary for further testing following the incident in the gate room._

"_He came out of the room and lost it," Daniel answered._

"_For the record, sir, I think he had lost it before he came out," Carter interjected. "We really have no idea why, or what happened, sir."_

"_What was the device supposed to do?" the General asked._

_Daniel and Carter looked to each other with unsure glances but it was Teal'c who said, "We are unsure of that as well, General Hammond."_

"_And Colonel O'Neill willingly obliged to test it anyway?"_

_Truthfully, the rest of SG-1 found it odd as well. But they hadn't been there at the time. The scientists on Scartella had separated the team up in order to give them a full tour of the station in the time allotted to do so. SG-1 only agreed because the Scartellans_ seemed _virtually harmless and definitely docile,_ and _their government really _did _only give them two hours to look around the facility. Both Daniel and Carter were eager to learn more about them—something having to do with advanced technology resembling that of the Asgard, Teal'c recalled—and O'Neill okayed it without a second thought._

_How wrong they'd been._

"_We weren't there," Dr. Jackson repeated for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. "They split us up. We thought it was because they wanted to give us a full tour, something they couldn't do in two hours with us all in one area."_

"_Did any of you encounter a similar device?" Hammond asked._

"_No," Teal'c answered._

"_Jack was given the technology-centered tour," Carter added. "Or at least that's what appears to have happened."_

"_Which makes no sense given that we stated outright that Sam was the scientist," Daniel added._

"_If I had known at the time, sir, that that's what they'd show him—"_

"_Major, don't apologize," Hammond told her._

"_But sir—"_

"_Carter! Leave the man alone."_

_Their attention quickly changed to the Colonel who was now standing in the doorway to the briefing room, looking somewhat annoyed that they were obviously talking about him._

"_He told you to stop apologizing, so stop," he added, now that her attention was on him._

_Normally she wouldn't have thought twice about the statement, except this time there seemed to be an underlying tone of hostility in his voice, much like there was in the gate room just over and hour ago. She looked to Daniel, giving him a look that questioned the Colonel. Daniel nodded almost imperceptibly, agreeing to Carter's unstated evaluation of their team leader._

_Jack sat down next to Teal'c, giving his attention to only the General as if not wanting to acknowledge anyone else's presence—and only doing so to the General because he was his immediate superior._

"_Did I interrupt something?" he asked, though it wasn't in a polite fashion. "Continue on," he sarcastically gestured to the air._

_Hammond's eyebrows rose. This was definitely_ not _the Jack O'Neill that had left for the mission earlier today._

"_We were actually more or less done for today," Hammond told him, unsure that continuing the briefing would be a good idea. He'd wait and read their individual reports later, knowing that if there were any other concerns, they would come to him by themselves._

"_You're all dismissed. Good night."_

_He stood, Sam and Jack just a moment after, and left._

"_Well, good night all," the Colonel told them. "Glad I could come in last minute."_

"_Jack…"_

"_Daniel, I don't want to hear it."_

"_What is your_ problem_?" Daniel hissed. He couldn't keep it back any longer._

_Jack turned to the archaeologist. "Hmm?"_

"_You've been like this since we all met up after the tours. What happened to you?"_

"_Nothing," he lied. Jack didn't feel like dealing with this right now. All he wanted to do was go home, have a beer and lose himself in an episode of the _Simpsons.

"_Colonel…"_

"_Will you_ _all_ please_ just shut it?" he asked. "Let it drop, alright? I'm fine."_

_As he left the three of them to look at each other with puzzled expressions, Daniel noticed that things were_ not _fine. Just how he'd get Jack to admit that, much less what actually_ happened _back on Scartella, he didn't know._

_He just knew he had to._

* * *

_When Daniel Jackson set his car into "park", his heart nearly jumped to his throat. He was sure the Colonel didn't want to see him, much less anybody else, but he hoped that maybe Jack would share what happened at least with him, out of friendship if for no other reason._

_It'd only been about an hour since Jack left the rest of SG-1 staring in disbelief as he all but stormed off after the debriefing. It left them with more questions than his presence answered, and everyone wanted to know what had_ truly _happened on that planet to have the Colonel so riled up._

_When Jack answered the door, Daniel held up a small cheese pizza as a form of peace offering, hoping it would break the ice and win him a chance inside the house to pry into O'Neill's head._

_Jack took the box and opened it to view its contents. _

"_Free pizza," he said. "I must be in trouble."_

"_Can I come in?"_

_The Colonel sighed. "Guess so. Drink?"_

"_Uh, no. I'm all set, thanks."_

"_Your loss."_

_Daniel was ushered into the living room as Jack fished in his refrigerator for a suitable liquid. Though by Daniel's observation, the act would be futile. It seemed that all of the alcohol Jack could have possibly owned was sitting near his couch. The usual beer was in a case on the floor right next to one end of the couch and a sizeable bottle of whiskey took a foothold on the coffee table._

This is not good_, Daniel commented to himself as Jack returned with nothing in his hands._

"_Couldn't find anything," he said, answering Daniel's unasked question._

"_I think that's because it's all out here."_

_Jack's eyes closed for a second in a flash of frustration before opening again and glancing at his friend. "What do you want?"_

"_Can we talk, Jack?"_

"_About the mission? No. About the show you're making me miss by paying me this visit, sure."_

"_What happened?"_

_Jack shook his head and shrugged. "Nothing. Nothing at all."_

_In his customary act of mentally trying to find another way to ask a question, Daniel bit the inside of his cheek and looked off to the right for a second._

"_Do you know what the device they showed you was for?" he tried._

"_No, I don't," O'Neill replied. "We didn't get that far."_

"_Are you sure?"_

"_What is this? Draw straws and get the short one again, Daniel? Get out of my house." Jack stood and gestured roughly in the direction of the front door._

_Daniel also stood but didn't otherwise move. He took a deep, settling breath before saying, "You have to tell us, sometime, Jack. Whatever it did, it's changed you. You can't deny that. Just look at you," he said before pointing to the case of beer and adding, "Just look at that."_

"_I've always got a case of beer, what man doesn't? Get out."_

_Sighing, Daniel gave up. At least he had tried_. Maybe it was just too soon.

_He held onto that last thought as he left Jack's house and started his car._

* * *

"I wish you'd just wake up and snap out of it," Daniel confided in his friend from the middle of an otherwise empty room in the infirmary. The only sound was that of the machines around Jack's bed, beeping in time- the only thing telling Daniel that he was still alive.

Jack had been in a sudden onset of a coma for a day now.

"If you had just told us what happened before _this_ happened, maybe we could have stopped it."

Daniel shifted in his seat beside the Colonel's bed. "You know, I honestly doubt what Janet said about this, that you'd be able to hear what I'm saying despite being, you know, in a coma. But seriously, Jack, you should have said something. Anything. Given us a hint, something to go on. And no, being an outright ass isn't a hint." He smirked. "Not for you, anyway."

_Please come out of this_, he thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_SG-1, with the exception of Colonel Jack O'Neill, had been waiting in the Embarkation Room for the last twenty minutes. Even Daniel had never been that bad, and he seemed to be perpetually late for everything. But, as in Jackson's case, this wasn't annoying; in fact, it was the complete opposite._

_It was very worrisome for all involved._

_Daniel had told the General, Carter and Teal'c about his attempt at a talk with Jack the day after it happened. While it seemed odd and wrong after the mission they'd just been on, no one elected to do anything other than watch for other signs._

_Of what, even Daniel wasn't sure. Without knowing what happened back on Scartella, how was he—much less anyone else—supposed to make a diagnosis?_

_That thought had kept him from worrying too much about things…_

…_until a week and a half had gone by without hearing anything from the Colonel._

_With a two-week break from off-world missions—given to the team due to the unusual nature of their mission to Scartella, and the talks still going on with that planet—Jack hadn't been around the base much. He didn't really see the need to after various mission reports had been written up. And even then, even while the General liked having the reports in on time, it only served to offer more evidence toward whatever was ailing Jack._

_Just then the doors slid open and Jack came walking in slowly, all geared up and ready to go._

_"Onward," he said, gesturing vaguely toward the stargate that was now starting to spin to life._

_Daniel took immediate note of the Colonel's appearance. Dark circles revealed just how many sleepless nights he must have had lately, and his uneasy squinting raised doubts in Daniel's mind as to what exactly Jack was up to last night._

_He said nothing. He didn't want to appear on the other side of the 'gate, inside of the Abydonian temple, in a fashion made of fighting and arguing._

_"Chevron three encoded."_

_"Are you alright, sir?" Major Carter asked._

_"Yeah, fine. Just a little tired," he offered, hands resting in his pockets. "Sorry about being late."_

_"It's alright," said Daniel as he continued to take inventory of the Colonel's condition as inconspicuously as he could. He looked slightly paler than normal, the shade of color someone turned after being sick._

_"Can I help you?" Jack asked, noticing Daniel's scrutiny._

_"No, never mind." Daniel looked elsewhere._

_"Chevron seven, locked," Walter informed them._

_"SG-1, you have a go. Enjoy the feast."_

_"We'll try to bring you back some of their moonshine, sir," Jack shouted._

_The General smirked. That was the Jack he remembered. Maybe things were okay after all, and two weeks ago was just a fluke._

_Intuition told him differently._

* * *

_"Let me get this straight," Carter said._

_Daniel had pulled her to the side and, in the midst of the chaos that was an Abydonian celebration feast, managed to get her alone for two seconds without Jack knowing._

_"You think he was hung-over when he got here this morning?" she continued._

_"Why not? You saw him. Besides, this wasn't_ technically _a mission. We wouldn't have been screened medically before going through the 'gate. Not when we seemed fine and were checked out two weeks ago after the mission to Scartella."_

_"So he drinks," she said, trying to shrug it off as if it was nothing. "Most of us do."_

_"Sam, I don't think it was for leisure. Have you seen how much he's had here?"_

_Sam peeked around the corner just in time to find Skar'ra offering the Colonel another round._

_"Daniel…"_

_"Sam, whatever happened on Scartella is still bothering him!"_

_"Obviously," she snapped at him, eager for him to get on with his point._

_"He's going to be completely_ drunk _by the time we leave for Earth—we're due back in four hours."_

_"General Hammond knew—"_

_"No, Hammond didn't know any of it. None of us do. We've got to force him to tell us what happened."_

_"We're not going to force him to do anything, Daniel. So if you'll excuse me…" Sam trailed off, turning from the archaeologist and aiming to join the meal once more._

_"Sam, we're not supposed to consume alcohol before missions or trips through the 'gate. Who are they going to blame if this ends badly?"_

_Carter, despite knowing that Daniel was more than likely correct, didn't want to think about it. After all, just as he'd said, they_ would _be back in a few hours. And so unless Jack drank himself into oblivion—something the Abydonians probably wouldn't even allow happen in the first place—things would be okay._

_Well, relatively so. This re-evaluated thought crossed her mind when she returned to the circle they had made on the floor where the group was laughing, eating and drinking._

Eat, drink and be merry_. The saying echoed in her head but it didn't give her that much comfort._

_Even less so when Teal'c came beside her and asked, "Should we not discourage Colonel O'Neill from consuming any more alcohol?"_

_So Teal'c was also on the "worry about Jack's alcohol consumption" bandwagon. Not that she wasn't either, but the Colonel could surely hold his own._

_"We'll keep an eye on it, Teal'c. That's really all we can do," she said before going to take a seat in the circle with everyone else. _

_Across the way, Daniel gestured with his eyes to Jack, reminding her once more of the issue. She rolled her eyes, signaling for him to drop it._

_That is, of course, when all hell broke loose—when she wished she took Daniel's words of worry with more than just a grain of salt._

_"Jaffa! Jaffa!"_

_A young man came running into the room of halfway drunk Abydonians and SG-1. He was exhausted from the sprint and fell to his knees ten feet away from the group._

_"The Jaffa are here! Apophis is also present!"_

_"_What_?" Carter heard the Colonel hiss in question._

_"Word has spread of our arrival," Teal'c supplied. "I believe it would be pertinent to leave."_

_"Agreed. It'll end badly, sir," she directed toward the Colonel._

_"Bring 'em on," was all O'Neill had to say about it._

_"Excuse me, sir?"_

_"Jack, if we stay this'll turn into a bloodbath before they take us prisoner," Daniel said._

_"We're staying, end of conversation."_

_"Sir!"_

_"They have no reason to die because of us being here."_

_"The Jaffa will come through peacefully."_

_"That is doubtful, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c argued. "They are mostly likely just on patrol."_

_"And so finding us here will just cause a riot that will end in a shootout," Daniel finished for the former First Prime._

_"Then a shootout it is."_

_Jack stood now and walked the short ways to where his vest and gun sat poised against a pillar. Carter followed him over. He turned to her and glared._

_"What?"_

_"Sir, Daniel's right. We can't let this happen. We need to go back to Earth before they get here."_

_In truth, Jackson was already starting to clear the group of Abydonians away from the stargate so they could get it running without anyone being swallowed by the _kawoosh_. They couldn't stay to fight a losing battle when there were so many innocent bystanders to be caught in the crossfire, especially not the people of Abydos who the team had come to know so well._

_"We're staying!" Jack shouted. "That's an order, Carter. Now get to it."_

_"Sir, will all due respect, I disagree."_

_Jack stopped flat out and stared Carter down. Sam tried not to waver in her stance but she knew what he was doing was wrong. They couldn't ask these people to risk their lives for them, and Jack obviously wasn't in the right frame of mind. And the Abydonian moonshine definitely wasn't helping the matter any._

_"Major," Jack warned._

_Whether they were good friends or not, on the "record" all that mattered in a circumstance such as this was their military ranks… and what Carter was about to do was_ anything _but enjoyable. The Air Force was going to just_ love _this part of her report, of that she was sure._

_"Sir, you are not in a healthy frame of mind. Whatever happened on Scartella is still affecting you greatly and the rest of the team agrees," she said firmly, though inside she was a wreck. "And so with full respect of you and your position, Colonel O'Neill, I am relieving you of duty. You are unfit to make decisions right now and the weight of this one could mean the difference between a peaceful patrol and bloody battle."_

_Daniel and Teal'c, from where they stood, couldn't hear what exactly Sam had said but from the enraged look on Jack's face, they figured it out._

_"She didn't…" Daniel started._

_"I believe so," Teal'c said._

_"Oh this is going to be fun."_

_"Indeed."_

_"Yes ma'am,_ Major_," Jack said,_

_saluting for a quick second, and then hurried to the DHD to dial the 'gate. He was completely and fully in the red on his anger-meter but would wait until they were back at the SGC to deal with it. Until then, it appeared the Major was calling all the shots._

_"Daniel! Teal'c! Get ready to go through."_

* * *

_This time when SG-1 came back early, the Ge__neral k__new better than to be solely curious of the reasons. This time, it wasn't the anger-filled yelling that alerted him to a problem with the team but the look on Jack's face when he stepped through and onto the ramp first._

_He was_ pissed _and could, it appeared, just barely walk in a straight line._

_General Hammond walked through the doors to the gate room seconds after the other three-fourths came through the stargate._

_"Carter! What the hell was that?" Jack demanded._

_"I'm sorry, sir."_

_"You don't have the_ authority _to—"_

_"Teal'c and Daniel aren't military, who the hell else would have done it?!"_

_Jack took a step toward her then and Daniel did the same, though his movement was more intended to be protective than aggressive._

_"I was and still am in full capacity of my faculties, Major!"_

_"Like hell you were, Jack!" Daniel interjected._

_The Colonel's glare switched to Jackson, who wasn't ready for the rage it held. "Stay out of this."_

_"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. "If you become more violent I will have to—"_

_"You too!"_

_"Sir—"_

_"If you_ ever _do that again, Major, I will—"_

_"_Colonel O'Neill_!" the General shouted, finally deciding to enter the fray._

_Following the course of the conversation, what security personnel were present in the room also stepped forward, planning for the worst though they knew it probably wouldn't get that far._

_"Sir," Jack acknowledged but didn't otherwise move his line of sight from Carter's blue eyes. This time it wasn't with attraction and endearment, though, this time he was nearly out for blood._

_"What happened?" Hammond demanded harshly._

_"Carter decided to relieve me of duty."_

_The General was confused. It was_ supposed _to be a celebration, not a mission, last he checked._

_"Major?"_

_"Apophis must have been somewhere on the planet or nearby. His Jaffa must have informed of our presence. Rather than have a peaceful patrol turn into a gun-fight, I thought it was best to leave."_

_"And Colonel O'Neill thought otherwise?" Hammond asked._

_"He wanted to stay and fight a suicidal battle."_

_Hammond looked to Dr. Jackson and Teal'c for confirmation of Carter's story. They nodded but didn't say a thing._

_"What other grounds for that act did you have, Major?"_

_"Colonel O'Neill was close to being fully intoxicated, sir, and therefore in no position to make decisions pertaining to potential combat and collateral damage found in innocent Abydonian lives."_

_"She had no more right than I did to make those decisions!" Jack countered._

_Hammond turned to Major but she answered before he could ask the question saying, "No, sir. Not more than maybe half a glass worth of it."_

_"That is such a— That still doesn't mean she—" Jack directed his attention toward the General then, seething. "Permission to be dismissed, sir?"_

_"Permission granted. Go."_

_Once again, Jack threw this vest and gun toward an airmen waiting to take them both and stormed off. SG-1 and the General watched him go in a terrified confusion._

_"Sir, I—"_

_"Regardless of what Jack says, you did the right thing, Major," Hammond assured her._

_She wasn't so sure._

* * *

Daniel laughed once. "I'm not sure how much you actually remember of it but Sam didn't much like relieving you of duty than you did. We were just worried for you, Jack. The Scartellans are going to pay for this. Even still… why didn't you just tell us what happened? What made you act like that? What made you get so angry and depressed so quickly, within hours?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Okay, so when I got to one part of this chapter, I ran into an issue. There was going to be a flash-back within a flash-back. To solve this issue, I have the "innermost flashback" **in bolded font just like this**. Hopefully that won't be too confusing…

* * *

**Chapter Three**

_Daniel and Sam followed O'Neill to the infirmary sometime after he'd left. Neither of them were sure it was the smartest thing to do but the General had demanded to know what happened on Scartella. That being said, he hadn't necessarily asked_ them _to do it but both of them figured it was better than having someone else do the questioning._

_They stopped short of the infirmary door, however, when they heard Jack shouting._

"_Get the hell off of me!"_

"_Colonel, I have to run a blood test," they heard Janet say calmly despite her patient acting up._

"_Why again?"_

"_Every time you come back through the stargate, Colonel. You know that."_

"_Stick that needle in me, I dare you."_

"_If you don't calm down I'm going to have to sedate you," Dr. Frasier warned._

_At that moment, Daniel decided that bringing in the person that landed Jack there in the first place probably wasn't the best idea. Carter nodded her agreement and remained standing outside as Daniel made his way over to where Jack was sitting upright on a bed._

"_How are you feeling?" he asked._

_Jack's expression took on one of pure annoyance. "How the hell do you_ think _I'm feeling? Why don't you skip over the stupid questions and ask the one you really want to?"_

"_What happened in those two hours you were given the tour of that facility on Scartella?"_

_Though he asked him to question Jack on what he really wanted, O'Neill didn't think he'd actually _do_ it._

"_Just a tour, Daniel. We walked around and I was shown a device. Two hours later, I met back up with you guys. Nothing."_

"_That's bullshit Jack, and you know it."_

"_Dammit Daniel! Can't you just leave well-enough alone?"_

"_No, I can't. General Hammond wants to know what happened."_

"_So he sent you and Carter, who's probably standing outside, to do his biding?"_

"_Jack—"_

"_Go away," he said, gesturing toward the door._

* * *

"_So he's not saying anything," Hammond repeated again._

"_No, sir."_

_He sighed. "Alright, Major. We're going back to Scartella."_

"_We're?"_

"_I want to see for myself just what goes on over there."_

"_Yes sir."_

* * *

"_I find that hard to believe," Hammond said. "He's a completely different man now."_

"_Be that as it may, I am in serious doubt that it is because of something that happened here."_

_The woman scientist was lying through her teeth. Hammond could tell and, now that they were seeing her in a different light, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c could tell, too. But with nothing else to go on, they only had her word and nothing more._

"_Can I see the device that the Colonel was shown during this tour?" Carter asked. "It may help determine whether or not it was what triggered his aggressive behavior."_

_Juana seemed to think about it for a moment, probably more for show than anything else, before saying, "The device has been moved to another laboratory a few hundred miles from here."_

"_Conveniently," Daniel couldn't help but mutter under his breath._

"_Ms. Juana, I respect your planet's government and their wishes but I do not intend to leave here today without answers," Hammond continued, "whether the device is at fault or not."_

"_I'm sorry, but I am not authorized to give you those answers. However, I may be able to get a copy of the machine's blueprints and you can see for yourself what it does. The device may not be here but copies of the blueprints are."_

"_That would be great."_

* * *

_Three-fourths of SG-1 and General Hammond stared at the blueprints for over an hour, and still nothing had changed._

"_It's a CT scan-type machine," Carter said. "And I'm pretty sure it does just exactly what one does, too. At least, that's what it looks like."_

"_Just by looking at a blueprint?" Daniel commented disbelievingly._

"_Yeah, it's not too complicated."_

"_Then it _wasn't_ the device that's… changed the Colonel?" Hammond asked._

_Carter tilted her head as if it would give her a better look at the blueprints in front of her. She shrugged when nothing came. "I'm not sure, to be perfectly honest sir. Aside from design differences and an otherwise unknown _true_ purpose, I still want to call it a MRI machine. But at the same time, if you'll look here where your head's supposed to go," she said, pointing to a section on the blueprint, "it appears that in _their_ version, your head is encased in some liquid of some sort… a gel, maybe? I can't tell from here."_

_She reached across the table they were huddled around and pulled one sheet over the rest. It was a paper full notes that had been declassified to them some hours earlier._

"_But this gel," she said, pointing to something that didn't make sense to any of the men. "You can stick tubes through it so you can breathe, obviously, but from what I can tell, it does something to your head, messes with your mind."_

"_Why would they do that if it really is just their version of a CT-scan machine?" Daniel asked._

"_Honestly, I have no idea. I'm no medical doctor. But if it _does_ screw with your brain, then it's possible they _did_ do something to him, sir."_

"_Alright, we'll bring these notes with us back to Earth and hope that Dr. Frasier can make heads or tales out of it."_

* * *

"_What happened?" General Hammond asked._

_He had decided to accompany the remaining members of SG-1 to the infirmary so he'd be there when Dr. Frasier first saw the blueprints only to find Jack fully sedated._

_SG-1 found themselves drawn to the Colonel's bed while Hammond received the explanation._

"_We did a fully physical, which he didn't much like," Janet told him. "His blood-work showed the norm for intoxication but there was also a small amount of a substance I couldn't identify in it."_

"_That'd probably be whatever's in that machine," Sam said._

"_What machine?"_

"_After, Doctor, please continue."_

"_When I came back in to inform him of the results, an assistant of mine informed me that he was now exhibiting the classical signs of depression. I didn't believe it for myself until I got in there. That was two hours ago."_

"_Then why did you sedate him?" Daniel asked._

"_When we asked what was wrong, he lashed out and got violent to the point where sedation was necessary. But that's not what worries me."_

"_What's the matter now?"_

"_We did a few scans and… whatever happened to him on that planet, it's going to cause him to fall into a coma sometime soon. Whether or not I can bring him out of it, I won't be able to tell until it happens. Two weeks ago, he was showing no other symptoms except for irritability. I'm sorry I didn't catch it earlier, sir."_

* * *

_Daniel nodded. "You're going to have to tell us sooner or later, Jack."_

"_It's… it's nothing I feel like talking about."_

"_Sam was able to get Juana to give her and Dr. Frasier blueprints of the machine they showed you," he told him. "They're not completely sure yet what it does, but something tells me that you do."_

"_Unfortunately," he said, looking down at the bed he was in. "Look, all that matters here is that they're not who they say they are."_

"_How so?"_

"_Let's just leave it at this: they don't deal with and correct their criminals the same way we do."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_That machine messes with your head, makes you see things that aren't there, hear things that don't exist- not anymore, at least. Like some screwed up correction or reform program."_

"_In what way?"_

"_It makes you hallucinate, I don't know!"_

"_Okay, okay, relax."_

_One of Jack's fists balled and then opened again with his growing frustration._

"_Why did you let them test it out on you?" Daniel asked._

"_I didn't _let_ them do anything."_

"_Then what happened?"_

"**You know, I'm not a science type person…. You should probably call Carter over here and have **_**her**_** take a look at it."**

"**You'll be fine, Colonel O'Neill. It's just a peek. I doubt you're Carter would have been able to fully understand the device anyway," Tristan Drena, a Scartellan scientist, told Jack. "Just come have a quick look."**

**Jack sighed. He was beginning to get bored of this 'tour'. Why did they pick **_**him**_** for a **_**science**_** department look-around? Did he really **_**look**_** like a scientist to these people? They really must have nothing at all.**

"**Alright, just make it quick," he resigned.**

**Where were Daniel, Carter and Teal'c, anyway? It must have been close to hitting the two-hour mark. It **_**had**_** to be, if only for Jack's sanity.**

**That's when it hit him. A wave of fatigue he couldn't fight off engulfed him and when he woke up…**

_**No**_**.**

**The thought ran through his head at a million miles a second, repeating over and over again in time with his suddenly increased pulse rate. His throat clenched up. He found he couldn't move.**

**He was staring at he and Sarah's bedroom, his son on the floor with blood pooling around them.**

**The sound of a gunshot rang through ears, kick-starting the full memory of the one event that, even if he desperately wanted to, he could never forget.**

**The night Charlie accidentally shot himself with Jack's gun.**

_Daniel sat in shocked silence as Jack recounted the story of what happened. He couldn't decide what scared him more, though: the event that he was forced to somehow relive in vivid detail or the monotone voice in which Jack recited the story._

"_Don't think about it, Daniel," Jack told him. "Seriously, just don't."_

_He swallowed his questions and asked Jack what happened next._

**Jack ran to his dead child, checking for a pulse. He begged Charlie to move, to breathe, to do anything other than lay there in that dark red pool of blood.**

**He fought the despaired tears back as long as they could but the profound sense of loss, the rip in his heart, was too great and he began to cry.**

**It was then that Sarah made it up the stairs. Jack had left her behind in the wake of his desperate sprint from outside of the house to their bedroom to find out just what had happened. She stood in the doorway for a second, until Jack looked up at her with tear-filled eyes to confirm that the sight before her was actually reality.**

"**No," she said simply. "No."**

**Jack couldn't speak, couldn't say a word.**

"**My baby!" she shrieked. "No!"**

**She ran over to him and nearly yanked Charlie out of his father's arms. "No, no, no, you'll be okay," she kept repeating over and over again. Until, that is, it clicked in her head what had happened.**

**Her gaze snapped up at Jack's face and it grew hard with hate. "It's your fault. It's all your **_**fault**_**!"**

"**Sarah, no—"**

"**It's **_**your**_** gun, Jack!" she shouted, standing up now. "**_**Your gun**_**! You should have kept it up someplace higher or not here at all!"**

**Her angry, desperate tirade dribbled off into coherent words as sobs took the spots where sentences should have been. Jack stood up to grab her and hold her to him, to attempt to comfort the mother of a dead child. Her face was pressed against his now blood-stained shirt and she kept crying and shouting…**

…**so much crying**.

"_We stood like that for a while," Jack said, though it was more of a whisper now. "I never wanted to see that again. I'm gonna kill those damn bastards for making me relive it. I'm not some damn criminal! And to punish them that way- especially if they're innocent! Daniel, that's messed up, it's-" Jack's eyes rolled back into his head before shutting._

"_Jack… Jack? Jack! _Colonel_!"_

_Daniel's voice rose, growing more worried every time he had to say Jack's name to get him to respond. Monitors and machines started beeping chaotically then, and Frasier and her medical team came flying in._

That was when Jack fell into the predicted coma.

* * *

"How is he?" Carter asked as Daniel made his way into the briefing room.

"Still in a coma," he answered, sliding heavily, sluggishly, into a chair. "Do you know why the General called us all here?"

"There was an unscheduled off-world activation about twenty minutes ago," Carter said.

"I believe it may be the Scartellans," Teal'c offered.

"Great," Daniel said. They were the last people he wanted to see at the moment.

Just then General Hammond and two others appeared from the General's office. One was Juana and the other was a scientist none of the team had seen before.

"They're here to cure Colonel O'Neill."

"Why now?" Daniel asked angrily. "Why not two days ago before the coma set in?"

"It took us that long to convince our governments that such action would be prudent. But when the General here threatened to end all relationships with our planet, they agreed."

"Oh, well, I'm glad that _trade_ is what's going to get Jack out of this."

"I _am_ sorry that this has happened," Juana said.

* * *

"Yeah."

"Jack?"

It was Daniel's voice. That was the first thing that registered as his eyes began to open and he became conscious to the world again.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ungh."

Daniel chuckled. "I guess that's a good sign. Let me get Dr. Frasier over here."

When Daniel left, Jack tried sitting up but found it more laborious than it should have been and let himself fall backwards.

Why did he _hurt_ so much? Why did he suddenly have such a large headache?

The questions stopped when he realized he could overhear Daniel talking with a few others.

"So he's awake?" one asked.

"Yeah, he just woke up." That one was Daniel.

"Thank God." He thought that was Carter's.

"Indeed." Jack tried laughing but found himself caught up in a coughing fit instead.

"Colonel! It's great to see you alive and well again," Dr. Frasier said as she came over to his bed.

"I think I beg to differ."

"What hurts?"

"A lot. Headache."

"I'll get you something for that."

"Am I gonna be okay?"

Dr. Frasier smiled. "Yes, you're going to be just fine."

* * *

**2 Days Later…**

"You don't remember anything?" Carter asked him. "At all?"

SG-1 was now clustered at a small table in the mess-hall after Jack had been released from the infirmary.

"Nope," he said, eating a spoonful of blue jello. "Nuthin'. Should I?"

Carter and Daniel shared a quick glance with each other and then Teal'c before Daniel said, "Nope. Just another routine visit."

They'd tell him in a day or so, after things had fully gone back to normal.

"Then how'd I end up in a coma?"

Daniel smiled. "Too much Abydonian moonshine."

Jack, gesturing with his spoon in hand, replied, "See, now _that_'_s_ the stuff."

**END**


End file.
